


a different kind of rebellion

by a_walking_shadow



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, HopePunk, School strike for climate 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 23:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20732231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_walking_shadow/pseuds/a_walking_shadow
Summary: It's 2019, and the Doctor has chosen his companions well. They're out, fighting for their planet. This might not be a battle against daleks or cybermen or sentient jellyfish with homicidal tendencies, but arguably, it's even more important.





	a different kind of rebellion

**Author's Note:**

> Our world is depressing, mostly, but there are some bits that might not be. 
> 
> I was at the strike in Canberra, Australia, and therefore I was not at any of the other ones, as I haven't worked out how to build a working TARDIS yet. (It's slow going, unfortunately). I've based my descriptions off of what I've seen on the news and on social media, but if anyone was at one of the ones mentioned and thinks I got something wrong, please let me know!

‘Ms McShane?’

Dorothy glances up at the police officer. He looks remarkably polite, particularly in comparison to most of the prison guards she encountered when she was young and travelling. It might just be that she’s older, now, suit-wearing and respectable rather than a teenager in an oversized bomber jacket with a nasty glint in her eyes, or it might be that, despite everything, her own planet hasn’t quite reached the levels of totalitarianism she usually fought against.

… yeah, it’s probably the first one.

‘We’ve got a slight problem’, he says, apologetically.

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. Your, ah, emergency contacts don’t appear to be responding?’

She frowns. ‘Odd. How many of them have you called?’

‘A lot’, he replies. ‘You… seem to have quite rebellious friends.’

She sighs, and forcibly clamps down on the bit of her brain which wants to rush the policeman and make a run for the doors. She’s respectable now, damnit. Far more use following the law than on the run.

‘Right’, she tells him. ‘Any chance I could pay my own bail?’

A few minutes later, Dorothy McShane- the well-respected CEO of A Charitable Earth- walks out of the police station, significantly poorer, but with a small gaggle of Extinction Rebellion protestors trotting at her heels. One of them invites her to a planning meeting for their next stunt, but she declines with an apologetic smile, explaining that she has some calls to make.

She does. Based on the knowing smiles she gets from the others- pensioners in mobility scooters and uni students alike- they’ve got a fair idea of just what those talks are going to be about.

* * *

‘I’m terribly sorry to bother you’, the tiny British woman says.

(She’s not.)

‘But, you see, I was wondering, is there any chance that we could go, anytime soon? I can see you’re very busy, goodness, I don’t think I’ve seen quite so many people being dragged into police stations in years! I’m a little suspicious about how legal most of these arrests are, actually, but I suppose that’s beside the point for now.’

The officer ignores her. On one hand, it’s easy. Jo Jones is a tiny, birdlike figure, and he towers over her. On the other hand, she’s remarkably persistent, and there’s something almost captivating about her- a glint in her eyes, steel in her ramrod straight spine.

‘The Amazon is on fire’, she points out, but the guard continues to ignore her. ‘Look’, she tries again. ‘I know you’re really fed up that I tried to stop that logging truck, but really, you can’t continue to ignore the problems! Forget living a healthy life, this forest produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. If no one stops the land clearing, you won’t even have a life to judge the quality of!’

The guard shifts uncomfortably, but otherwise does a good job pretending he doesn’t understand English. Jo presses on, relentless. ‘There’s a climate protest happening, led by a bunch of schoolkids, can you believe? Some of my grandchildren are planning to march with them! And I was really hoping I’d be able to meet them there, you see, but no one seems to be working to actually process my files.’

The police officer just glares at her. Jo sighs, and returns to counting bricks in the wall of her cell. She’s had a lot of practice at amusing herself in these sorts of situations, and not all of it came from her time with the Doctor.

* * *

‘What do you _mean_, Gran’s been arrested again.’

It’s taken Santiago a good hour to fight his way to the edge of the crowd- there must be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people here. Ideally, he’d be in the centre of that, but then he’d gotten yet another text about his crazy, _stupid_ family. His gran would be furious if he left the strike because he was worried about her, but-

She’s really getting too old for this.

Brisbane stretches out before him, a cluster of high-rises on the opposite side of the river. From his position- currently by the art gallery, according to the nearby signs- he can see the front of the march beginning to spill out across the river.

It’s an inspiring sight, and he’d love to be a part of it. This comes first, though.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know it was inevitable’, he says. ‘But why did it have to be Brazil? Hell, I should be the one in the Amazon, I can still do the running. And the smoke won't mess with me, as much. You know how her lungs are now. Do you think I could convince her to swap? This Aussie stuff is looking pretty massive, she’d probably love to be here to see it.’

A vaguely familiar woman gives him a slight smile as she wanders past. She’s got a sign that says something very rude about Australian politicians, and it makes Santiago grin. He drops it a moment later, though, running a hand through his hair, exhausted. 

‘Yeah, yeah, I know. Can’t stop Jo Jones from protesting what she wants to protest. I just wish she’d be a bit more careful, though!’

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the woman with the rude sign pause, then slowly turn around to face him, looking vaguely perturbed.

‘They’re saying Tasmania might have the biggest protests since Franklin River’, he says. The woman is still staring at him. ‘Do you think that’ll be enough to get her here? Or do we need to invent some weirdo in a stupid costume and an even stupider alias, too?’

At this, the officially suspicious woman starts smiling, and moves towards him again. Santiago decides to ignore it, for now.

‘Yeah, I suppose not. All right. Call me if anything changes, okay? Yeah. Yeah. Bye.’

Okay. Now to deal with the lady.

‘Hello’, she says. ‘I don’t suppose the Jo Jones you mentioned used to be Jo Grant? Because if so, I think we might have a mutual acquaintance.’

‘You know the Doctor?’ Santiago stutters out, because sue him, there aren’t _that_ many people who would actually know his gran’s maiden name, and there is something oddly familiar about this woman, or at least the confidence etched into the lines of her shoulders.

She nods. ‘Tegan Jovanka, nice to meet you. If your gran’s going to be okay, what do you think of heading down there?’

‘Santiago Jones’, he replies, then hefts his own sign onto his shoulder. ‘Ladies first.’

* * *

His lecture, this week, had been on climate change.

Sometimes, Bill wonders how he chooses these topics. This lecture was supposed to be on the United Nations, according to the course syllabus- although the Doctor hadn’t even known that document existed, when she’d asked him about it.

Usually, Bill didn’t mind. The Doctor’s lectures were fascinating, regardless of what he decided to talk about. This, though-

‘You’re worried about something.’

She considered trying to deny it, then shrugged. He’d figure it out eventually anyway, and this was kind of his fault.

‘You told me, when we went to that planet with the smiley robots that tried to kill everyone, that Earth was evacuated. Is this why?’

‘“this” being…’

She scowls, dumps her essay on climate processes and extreme weather events on his desk. ‘Does humanity almost die out because we screwed up our own planet this much?’

He hesitates for a moment, his eyes flicking from hers, to her essay, back up again, and Bill’s heart sinks.

‘That’s not a no. Doctor, you’re not denying it. I’m right, aren’t I? Oh, god. Humans almost die out because we’re a bunch of idiots who can’t be bothered to stop even when we know we’re just going to hurt ourselves.’

The Doctor stands abruptly, spinning out of his chair dramatically, and marching towards the TARDIS. ‘Come on!’

‘Come- where are we going?’

‘You’re worried about the future’, he says. ‘Everyone is, of course. But!’ He bounds over to her, takes her hands gently, glances up like an excitable puppy. ‘It’s not all hopeless. It never is. Sometimes, we just need a chance to see that.’

Bill nods, slightly warily, then frowns. ‘That doesn’t explain where we’re going.’

He’s already pulled her into the TARDIS, and is striding towards the console. ‘You’ll see!’

‘But Nardole-’

‘He doesn’t have to know, does he? Come on!’

‘Hey!’ shouts Nardole, as he walks into the office to see the TARDIS dematerialising, but he’s just too late to do anything about it other than shake his head in despair and angrily rearrange some of the Doctor’s books.

They don’t land the TARDIS. That’s the thing that surprises Bill the most- they don’t land her an alleyway or a park or a disused shed, or, well, anywhere. Instead, the Doctor turns her invisible (she asked why he doesn’t do that all the time, but he muttered something about losing an invisible jet and she decided she didn’t want to know) and they fly above the streets, weaving between skyscrapers. It’s the most insane example of driving she’s ever seen, and she’s known the Doctor for a while, now.

‘New York’, he tells her. ‘20th September 2019. This is the start of one of the biggest weeks of climate strikes the world has ever seen.’

Then he opens the doors to the TARDIS, and she peers down at the streets.

It’s suddenly apparent why the Doctor didn’t try and land. The streets are absolutely packed with people, stretching into the distance in every direction. Many of them carry signs, different groups chanting different chants until it descends into a cacophony of sound and energy. Most of them are kids.

The Doctor flies them over the crowds, which only seem to get thicker and thicker as they approach what she realises must be their destination. The park is absolutely packed, probably thousands of people crammed into this one spot.

‘The estimates come in at two hundred and fifty thousand people, here in New York’, the Doctor murmurs, beside her. ‘Four million globally. Four million people, all over the world, from Wall Street to refugee camps across Africa, all standing up and fighting.’

‘We are doing this to wake the leaders up’, says the girl on stage. She couldn’t be more than sixteen. ‘We are doing this to get them to act. We deserve a safe future.’ The crowd roars. ‘And we demand a safe future. Is that really too much to ask?’

Bill stares out over the sea of faces, smiling slightly. They’re angry, they’re worried- but the energy of the place is absolutely intoxicating, and she can’t help but feel buoyed by it. Maybe, just maybe, humanity will actually pull through this.

‘Thank you’, she tells the Doctor, quietly. ‘I needed to see that.’

‘It’s not an easy fight’, he responds, eyes locked on the figure on the stage with something akin to pride. ‘It’s a long, uphill battle, and there aren’t easy fixes. But as long as they keep hoping for a better future, keep dreaming, keep fighting- they can’t afford to lose, and they won’t.’

‘The kids are alright, huh?’ Bill murmurs, smiling, as the girl on stage announces that ‘this is only the beginning’ to the loudest cheer yet.

The Doctor smiles, faintly. ‘Aren’t they always.’

**Author's Note:**

> In order: 
> 
> -Ace McShane was with a group of Extinction Rebellion protestors who got arrested while blocking roads at the Port of Dover.   
-Jo Jones (nee Grant) was arrested in Brazil, protesting land clearing in the Amazon.   
-Santiago Jones was marching with the student strike in Brisbane, as was Tegan Jovanka.   
-12 and Bill turned up at the strike in New York, and heard part of the speech given by Greta Thunberg.


End file.
